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Our family took a fairly long Disney trip this summer & came back with tons of photos, tips, and experiences to share with you. Our entire trip lasted eleven days as we hit all of the parks multiple times, toured several properties, checked out Disney Springs, & splashed around at Typhoon Lagoon. We tried out the now defunct Genie Plus, mastered the Virtual Queue, partook in Memory Maker, snagged the “Free Dining” plan & survived the blistering Florida heat in July.
Now when I tell most people about our trip their first reaction is usually to say something along the lines of “Wow, that must of cost you a small fortune” or “How much does something like that cost” and without a doubt those answers are yes and a lot. I can’t give any tips on how to make a Disney World trip affordable that wouldn’t include winning a game show prize or jumping a couple of fences but I can share some of the things we did to reduce costs and give a general breakdown of what we spent as there are several extra expenses that could come in play beyond your WDW package.
First off, we are a family of four with two adults with children of twelve and six. My father and his fiancé joined us for most of the trip but paid their separate ways so I’ll omit their expenses here and we were able to get the “Free Meal” deal so our quick service meals & snacks were included with our package however we had to stay on property & buy park hopper to get that deal. We flew in & stayed 10 nights at Pop Century with 8 days at the parks and one day at Typhoon Lagoon/Disney Springs. Since we had the meal deal, we did not do any table service restaurants, but we did visit OIlga’s cantina and spent extra on a few extra drinks and snacks along the way and of course some souvenirs as well.
Basics
WDW Package w Park Hopper Plus (Room, Tickets, Meals) $6,100
Roundtrip airfare for 4: $1500
Airport Parking: $130
Mears Shuttle to park & back: $130
So, 7860 got us there, inside the park, and back but we had several smaller expenses that we didn’t necessarily plan on (some like the magic bands were previously free on our last trip).
Extras
Magic Bands: 100:00
Memory Maker: 185
Genie Plus: 400
Lyft: 50
Ogas Cantina: 200
2 droids: 250
Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo: 100
Souvenirs/pins/toys: 300
Supplies for trip (Ponchos/water bottles, sunscreen etc.) 100
Food at airport: 100
So roughly an extra 1700 there & granted we could have done without most of these extras, but we budgeted in the activities & things we wanted well in advance. Sadly, with our last trip in 2019 the Mears transportation, Magic Bands, and Lightning Lanes (Genie Plus) were all included in our package plus hotel and air were also roughly twice as much this trip with a ticket increase to boot. Adding it all up we spent around $9500 hard earned dollars on our 10-night, 11-day trip or around $900 a day or 225 per person/day.
Number one thing we did to save was getting the free meal deal package because although you lose on hotel discounts (typically 20-35%) you save a ton on food especially if you skip the temptation of those wonderful (and expensive) sit down & character meals. To clarify, this is a promotion where they include all-day dining & they offer these deals from time to time & pair well with the value resorts. It’s an extra great deal for us because we are four to a room & love to eat. Secondly, we stayed at POP which is a little more than the All Stars but cheaper than the moderates & much cheaper than the deluxe resorts. Lastly, we waited and checked daily to find the lowest airfare & ended up getting a fair price with Southwest with flights that worked for us.
This is simply what my family spent on our last trip. There are many factors such as transportation/lodging/length of stay/ & spending in parks that will make your trip cost much more or way less. Cutting the trip down to say 5 nights would definitely save as rooms were around 220 a night but the savings on tickets is minimal because they also give a large discount the more days you go plus airfare & most of the extras would cost the same so the overall savings would be much lower than 50%. Hopefully this will give you an idea of the true costs involved but does not discourage you from taking a trip of your own, it truly is a magical time & worth the great expense.
